Chapter Ten: Planning for What to Teach and How to Teach It
#1. If you have had the opportunity to watch videos of Carl Anderson, Lucy Calkins or Amanda Hartman conferring, you have witnessed excellent conferences. They inspire you. You think to yourself, "how do they do that and make it look so easy?" It takes practice and knowledge. You have to know what to teach, how to teach it and when to teach it. Comment on how you could build your repertoire and what would be most useful to you. Respond Here: I think it will be most useful for me to know what to teach. As I mentioned before, having a better understanding of which strategies to use to teach certain skills will be helpful for me. Like the steps the authors noted on page 137, I would find it helpful to study a text from different levels and anticipate what might cause a reader trouble. Then, decide which reading skill and strategies would most help the reader. Collaborating with colleagues will be essential for me as we look through books together and brainstorm a list of skills and strategies. Actually, this might be a great goal in our professional development plan. I see my conferring notebook will be tabbed with many sections of prompts this year….and I’m thankful for more tools. I agree with Bobbi in that the best way to get better at it is to just try it! Sara Sabourin To become better at doing conferences and conferring in the classroom, it would take obvious knowledge of what was being taught and how it is being taught. Another thing that would be important would be plain old experience in teaching. As a teacher of 15 years, I still don't think I have enough experience with conferring; I continue to learn with the students year after year. Actually the structure of the reading workshop is new and intriguing to me. I can't wait to go back into the classroom and begin to use it. However, I can think back and see that I've done all the steps in the reading workshop, just not in that order or calling it the same thing. I also have a degree in special education and was not actually taught how to teach reading. I was taught how to teach reading to a special education student, not how to teach reading specifically. So learning this new information is exciting to me. I love to learn new things and the reading workshop theory of running a reading rich classroom is important to me. Cara1212 Chapter 10 from Bobbi Friend #1 Lucy Calkins makes the conference look so natural and so easy that the best thing for us to do as teachers is try it. The way to get better at something is through practice. When conferring, “I need to know what to teach. I need to have a repertoire of possible strategies that I’m able to access at a moment’s notice. I also need to be skilled at assessing wisely to match those strategies to different readers”. This part, to me, is the most difficult part of conferring. Keeping a checklist of skills and strategies for each unit that I teach inside of my conference folder will be very helpful. The idea of building that repertoire can only happen when we practice. Also, the more familiar we are as teachers with the skills that proficient readers need at our grade level, the better prepared we will be for our conferences. We need to remember to keep our teaching points related to our mini-lessons so that we do not overwhelm our students.
I have not seen videos of reading conferences so I do not have that frame of reference but I can only imagine how effortlessly and smoothly they would confer. After reading this chapter I think that I would have major responsibilties in order to be prepared. The first was highlighted on page 136 and would be to "study text levels for what to teach" and I think this would be a huge task. I feel that I will have to do a lot of text study in order to be very familiar with anything a child chooses to read. I will try to have demonstration texts with pages marked for conferring with kids but I feel like I will need to have a list of books along with possible teaching points for each book. I don't think is it very realistic of me to expect to have this done for back to school but I will need to dedicate a lot of time to this plan, Secondly, I think I need to have a strong sense of where each of my readers' is currently and an individual plan for where they are heading. I agree with Bobbi's comment that this is the difficult part of conferring! --Jodee Tuttle
Lucy makes reading conferences look so easy. They seem to flow so naturally with her knowing exactly the correct things to say. I have tried it over the past two years and it takes a lot of practice. For me, knowing what to say and coming up with the skills and strategies is very hard. I agree with Bobbi, that keeping a checklist of skills for each unit that we teach inside our conference folder seems very helpful. I also like the idea of using the T chart of compliments and ideas of what to teach. I think this will be a good help for me and will make it a little easier to stay organized. Ronda
I plan to start small. I am going to make a binder to keep my conferring "Hitlist" in with samples and ideas to start with. I like the idea of having pre=planned conferences materials to support my beginning attempts.This book has provided me with great ideas to get started with. Since I have some teachers in our building with experience with Readers Workshop I will ask for a chance to observe them while they work within the structure of the workshop. I'm sure they have notes and experiences to share that will help me on my progression. I have to put in my time that "will pay off in the long run as I better learn how to find the "just-tight" teaching point for each reader".p.150 Mike
Watching videos of Lucy Calkins conferring was inspiring for me. To watch how easily she completed a conference within the short time frame given was a model for me. Having conferences with students in the writers workshop makes the switch to reading conferences feel a little less threatening. In our break-out session at the ISD, sharing ideas for a conferring notebook to that I have everything I need right at hand, makes my preparation easier. As Mike stated, having some ideas ahead of time of what the beginning conferences will include will also make initial conferences simpler.
Sue Ronning
I am not sure if I am going in the right direction with this after reading everyones' responses, but this is what it made me think of after reading the question. I am very jealous of the fact of how easy they all make conferencing look. After reading the chart at the bottom of page 134 stating the steps to mining your own reading, it made some sense. As readers, have we really ever stepped back and thought about what we do to understand text? I haven't. I have always been a strong reader. It comes naturally. I like the idea of following the steps in that chart. I think by analyzing my own reading, it will give me a better picture of what to look for in my students who might be struggling with certain skills. TGaribay
#2. Jen and Gravity refer back to Chapter 7 which discussed moving students from level to level. One tool we need in our repertoire for conferring is knowledge of text levels. When you are familiar with the skills in each level, you will be able to pull from that knowledge and quickly know what skill you need to teach that child. Share how you foresee referencing these skills for easy access while you confer. Respond Here: Chapter 10 from Bobbi Friend #2 We need to know the skills required as students attempt to move from one level to the next. In order to be familiar with these levels we need to find some material such as the Fountas and Pinnell Guided Reading Levels so that we can become familiar with specific texts. We need to develop skills and strategies checklists as shown in chapter 8 for each reading level. We need to research books in order to know the text difficulties and qualities of the text that appear in many books. We need to understand the density of the text, how the pictures help with the text, how complex is the vocabulary in the text, what is the sentence length and sentence structure, and how is the text written that will affect fluency and intonation. Once you have done some research on the characteristics of books at each level, the next step is developing your list of skills and strategies to be taught for that level. One way I foresee myself referencing these skills is by having mentor texts available for my use. If I am familiar with a text from each level (or ones mainly used within my upper elementary setting) I would be able to focus more on a few skills from each level. This would make it much more efficient for me. My reading series comes with leveled reading material. I have started looking at the in a new light. Setting the books out I can see the progression. Each reading unit comes with emergent reader, on level reader and above level reader. It's not perfect but it will be my spring board as I begin this journey. I also have an extensive library set up in our "reading room" that are leveled. As I research my students these will be a guide for my students when shopping. Understanding the levels of reading material also guide me in strategies to discuss when conferring. Margaret Fox I think that it is important to look up book levels and characteristics to make ourselves very familiar with this information. Our school district uses Fountas and Pinnell's. I think the more familiar we make ourselves with these the better we will be at conferencing with our students. I need to spend more time leveling my classroom books and develop a conferencing menu so I can put it inside my notebook to make reference to as I confer with my students. Having this menu will help me to know what challenges my student might encounter when moving on to the next level and what skills I could teach them so they would be successful. One challenge for me is I need to make myself more familiar with the text that my students will be using. Ronda
I'm going to start with my literacy coach. I will ask what information she may have to share. I hope to find a copy of F&P's Guided Reading. It is mentioned so often in the books I'm reading that I sense it could be a valuable resource that I can copy quick idea lists out of. Like I mentioned before, I will ask/beg my colleagues for any advice or help they can share with me. I'm sure some of them have great checklists, shortcuts, and mentor text that they can lead me towards. Today, when I was researching some information on Accelerated Reading I saw ideas that looks like it will blend well with the skills I need to build for Reader's Workshop. I plan to take a closer look at that information for possible additional support. Mike -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#3. There are several other ways you can get information from the reader ahead of time to help ease your conferring. One is to study past conference notes, another is to analyze their running records, and yet another way is to analyze their book logs. Which one of these analyses do you feel would be most helpful to you in your classroom situation? Please expound on this. Respond Here: I use a combination of prior conference notes and running records to inform my reading conferences with students. There isn’t one way that is most helpful as both of the tools I have used inform my teaching differently. For example, the running record gives me an overview of accuracy and miscues, fluency, and comprehension. From that assessment I can hone in on that particular area as I approach the reader. I use past notes to remind myself which skill we have been working on together (and as mentioned in a previous chapter, keep at the same skill until the student is secure with it). I can glance at a unit check-bric to see the dates of when I’ve worked on that skill with the student and where to go next with her. Since I haven’t used book logs in the past I’m interested in trying this to add to my repertoire of tools. I can see how it would be helpful to look for information in the log such as, “How long is the student reading in school and at home each day?” or “How long was this student in one reading level before moving on to the next?” (page 146). I foresee having conferences then about how to make more of a reading life at home, if needed. Sara Sabourin
I would benefit most from using my conference notes and the students' book logs. I do not normally do a running record on a student, unless they are at a significantly lower grade level. I choose not to use running records because I teach upper elementary; this type of assessment is usually used for lower grade levels. This will be my first year using Reading Workshop. The one area I had been struggling with was effective conferring. Through out this book study I have gained some tools that will help me be a more effective reading teacher. My research will be my start. The conference notes and running records will guide me when I confer. I will be implementing the Reading Log. Margaret Fox
I have used each of the analysis methods described, but relied most heavily on rereading notes from previous conferences. I reread these notes before beginning all of my conferences last year. I found it was a great refresher to know what we talked about last time. I am excited to use the new chart format that allows me to record compliments and teaching points that I made and could’ve made. While I will only be focusing on one skill or strategy when I talk to the student, I can check in on things I noted before but did not teach. I may be pleasantly surprised to find that a teaching point I could have made last time is now something the student is doing well on his/her own. I also gain insight from my students’ running records, especially from those students who are struggling readers. I will admit that I do not analyze them to the extend described in the book, but am going to spend more time figuring out why a child missed a word to give a more focused strategy at our next conference.
On a rare occasion, I used book logs to guide my conference. I most frequently used this analysis for readers who appeared to be finishing books too quickly or not finishing them at all. As mentioned in the book, there are students every year who whip through books, but spend little time in thought. They are able to retell the story with ease but make no connections or inferences about the characters. I know after this analysis what skills to teach the student to deepen his/her understanding. I more use the logs to hold students accountable for recording their reading so they are able to see their growth throughout the school year.
Stephanie Cooper
I always prepared ahead of time for a conference by looking over a student’s prior conference notes. This helped me get into a frame of mind for that student and be able to listen for examples of improvements to that student’s previous teaching point(s). Often a previous teaching point would become a complement in later conferences. I also used a recording software last year that helped me prepare greatly. A parent would record students reading one week and then I could go back and listen to that student the day before I was going to confer with them. I did a running record on the recording and that helped me research complements and teaching points. Then when I conferences with the student I had some research in my mind prior to help me during the actual conference. In a way I was doing a pre-conferring session before my conferring. It seems like a lot of work but it was actually pretty easy – 5 minutes at the most per student and it really helped me hone in on specific skills without the crunch for time. Garth
Garth, thank you for sharing the idea of having a parent tape students reading. That seems like a great way to do a better running record and have the time to rewind, relisten, and do a better job of researching what my students are doing. When I do running records "in person" I feel like I'm rushed to keep up and get good evidence. What a great way to de-stress running records! Conference notes seem like the best way to keep my teaching individualized and keep me focused with evidence of what we have talked about previously. The whole accountability thing for me and the students. With all that said, I was impressed with analyzing the book logs. Seems like an easy way to get information on student reading habits and provides some quick strategies to teach. Mike
As I start the year and will be working on increasing my student’s stamina for reading, I will use book logs to guide my conferences. I want to focus on improving the time my students spend reading and interacting with their books. Keeping good records of my conferences and then reviewing them prior to the next conference will keep me focused and also holding my students accountable for the instruction that I have already given them. Returning to previous skills will reinforce for my students that they need to use the things we have talked about.Sue Ronning
I won't be sticking to just one method to gather information when conferring. I see myself using book logs to see what students are reading. How long they are spending on books? Are they reading at home? Are they reading a variety of texts? Keeping good notes from previous conferring will be very important as well. Running records will prove to be very useful too. I like the chart ideas on page 144. I am really looking forward to trying running records this year. I am hoping that I become comfortable with all three of these methods, that I can find patterns in order to teach my students strategies they need to become better readers. TGaribay
Conference notes and book logs would assist me. Past performance or tends would let me see what the student is on the verge of and allow me to better gear their conference to met their individual needs. Conference would show what ground the student has cover. The book log what show if the student favors an author, a genre and how to guide them to expand if it was warranted? Kdn
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#4. Conferring is hard work. To help us master the process, we really have to internalize the structure of a conference so that it is second nature to us. Also the authors suggest we not be afraid to reuse demonstrations we have used before. Another piece to add to our repertoire or conferring toolkit is to have mentor texts available in our arm to illustrate our teaching point. Share with members of this wiki, some specific mentor texts you could carry with you as you confer and what would you use them for. Respond Here: It's difficult for me to quote from a specific text; all my books are at school! But if I had to use a mentor text for the skill of envisioning, I would use Captain Underpants as a mentor text. It is in the format of a comic book, with many illustrations and sketches. I would use this to show the students how to take text and draw what one sees in their mind or how to make a mental image. Any text that is in comic form, would be good for teaching envisioning. I also would use our basal reader as a mentor text just because all the students would be familar with the passages. Unfortunately, I cannot think of any more specific texts to use for conferring. Cara1212
Like the author of the book, I didn’t carry a text with me to conferences and often found myself going to grab one mid conference. Luckily, I usually knew right where the book was located. I am going to work harder to be more prepared by having a couple of books at my side to make the most of my conferences. Any of the Kevin Henkes books that I have read aloud are great to use for connections, inferring how a character feels, and story elements. My students last year loved these stories and I referred back to them often during my mini lesson teachings. Magic Tree House books would be great for helping students read fluently. These books are read aloud in my classroom, therefore making them familiar to students to they can focus on my teaching point and not the plot. They are rich with dialogue that is shouted, whisper, and said with various emotions and there are plenty of commas with which students can gain practice reading instead of ignoring. These text would also work well for inferring about characters and envisioning due to their detail of varied locations. Stephanie Cooper Similar to Stephanie I did not have mentor text readily available for conferring last year and I should have. I too would waste time in the middle of a conference trying to find a familiar book to teacher a skill/strategy. This year our district has adopted a systematic Read Aloud/Vocabulary series called Making Meaning. This series has specific read aloud picture books per week/comprehension skill. I’m going to rely on these picture books next year as my mentor books. I think the familiarity of these books through our Making Meaning time will help the student during conferring. - Garth
I can relate to all of you about not having the text right in my hands at the right moment! I totally agree with Stephanie that the Kevin Henkes books have such dynamic characters and plots that they can be used to support many strategies that I might teach in a conferene. I think that using texts from whole class instruction that the students really enjoyed and did some deep thinking could be great for conferring. Maybe chosing one text per comprehension strategy to carry around would give me enough to use as teaching points. Debbie Miller has a great list of texts to teach the 7 comprehension strategies, any of which would be good mentor texts. ~ Stephanie B.
A mentor text I would use for fiction would probably an Ezra Keats book for lower students. The books are relatable to my students. For a little high level I might use Charlotte’s Web—character development, inference, fore shadowing so many reading strategies are covered by EB White. For nonfiction I would probably use one of my many how to it type books that I am luck to have in my library. Kdn
#1. If you have had the opportunity to watch videos of Carl Anderson, Lucy Calkins or Amanda Hartman conferring, you have witnessed excellent conferences. They inspire you. You think to yourself, "how do they do that and make it look so easy?" It takes practice and knowledge. You have to know what to teach, how to teach it and when to teach it. Comment on how you could build your repertoire and what would be most useful to you.
Respond Here:
I think it will be most useful for me to know what to teach. As I mentioned before, having a better understanding of which strategies to use to teach certain skills will be helpful for me. Like the steps the authors noted on page 137, I would find it helpful to study a text from different levels and anticipate what might cause a reader trouble. Then, decide which reading skill and strategies would most help the reader. Collaborating with colleagues will be essential for me as we look through books together and brainstorm a list of skills and strategies. Actually, this might be a great goal in our professional development plan. I see my conferring notebook will be tabbed with many sections of prompts this year….and I’m thankful for more tools. I agree with Bobbi in that the best way to get better at it is to just try it!
Sara Sabourin
To become better at doing conferences and conferring in the classroom, it would take obvious knowledge of what was being taught and how it is being taught. Another thing that would be important would be plain old experience in teaching. As a teacher of 15 years, I still don't think I have enough experience with conferring; I continue to learn with the students year after year. Actually the structure of the reading workshop is new and intriguing to me. I can't wait to go back into the classroom and begin to use it. However, I can think back and see that I've done all the steps in the reading workshop, just not in that order or calling it the same thing. I also have a degree in special education and was not actually taught how to teach reading. I was taught how to teach reading to a special education student, not how to teach reading specifically. So learning this new information is exciting to me. I love to learn new things and the reading workshop theory of running a reading rich classroom is important to me.
Cara1212
Chapter 10 from Bobbi Friend #1 Lucy Calkins makes the conference look so natural and so easy that the best thing for us to do as teachers is try it. The way to get better at something is through practice. When conferring, “I need to know what to teach. I need to have a repertoire of possible strategies that I’m able to access at a moment’s notice. I also need to be skilled at assessing wisely to match those strategies to different readers”. This part, to me, is the most difficult part of conferring. Keeping a checklist of skills and strategies for each unit that I teach inside of my conference folder will be very helpful. The idea of building that repertoire can only happen when we practice. Also, the more familiar we are as teachers with the skills that proficient readers need at our grade level, the better prepared we will be for our conferences. We need to remember to keep our teaching points related to our mini-lessons so that we do not overwhelm our students.
I have not seen videos of reading conferences so I do not have that frame of reference but I can only imagine how effortlessly and smoothly they would confer. After reading this chapter I think that I would have major responsibilties in order to be prepared. The first was highlighted on page 136 and would be to "study text levels for what to teach" and I think this would be a huge task. I feel that I will have to do a lot of text study in order to be very familiar with anything a child chooses to read. I will try to have demonstration texts with pages marked for conferring with kids but I feel like I will need to have a list of books along with possible teaching points for each book. I don't think is it very realistic of me to expect to have this done for back to school but I will need to dedicate a lot of time to this plan, Secondly, I think I need to have a strong sense of where each of my readers' is currently and an individual plan for where they are heading. I agree with Bobbi's comment that this is the difficult part of conferring! --Jodee Tuttle
Lucy makes reading conferences look so easy. They seem to flow so naturally with her knowing exactly the correct things to say. I have tried it over the past two years and it takes a lot of practice. For me, knowing what to say and coming up with the skills and strategies is very hard. I agree with Bobbi, that keeping a checklist of skills for each unit that we teach inside our conference folder seems very helpful. I also like the idea of using the T chart of compliments and ideas of what to teach. I think this will be a good help for me and will make it a little easier to stay organized. Ronda
I plan to start small. I am going to make a binder to keep my conferring "Hitlist" in with samples and ideas to start with. I like the idea of having pre=planned conferences materials to support my beginning attempts.This book has provided me with great ideas to get started with. Since I have some teachers in our building with experience with Readers Workshop I will ask for a chance to observe them while they work within the structure of the workshop. I'm sure they have notes and experiences to share that will help me on my progression. I have to put in my time that "will pay off in the long run as I better learn how to find the "just-tight" teaching point for each reader".p.150
Mike
Watching videos of Lucy Calkins conferring was inspiring for me. To watch how easily she completed a conference within the short time frame given was a model for me. Having conferences with students in the writers workshop makes the switch to reading conferences feel a little less threatening. In our break-out session at the ISD, sharing ideas for a conferring notebook to that I have everything I need right at hand, makes my preparation easier. As Mike stated, having some ideas ahead of time of what the beginning conferences will include will also make initial conferences simpler.
Sue Ronning
I am not sure if I am going in the right direction with this after reading everyones' responses, but this is what it made me think of after reading the question. I am very jealous of the fact of how easy they all make conferencing look. After reading the chart at the bottom of page 134 stating the steps to mining your own reading, it made some sense. As readers, have we really ever stepped back and thought about what we do to understand text? I haven't. I have always been a strong reader. It comes naturally. I like the idea of following the steps in that chart. I think by analyzing my own reading, it will give me a better picture of what to look for in my students who might be struggling with certain skills. TGaribay
#2. Jen and Gravity refer back to Chapter 7 which discussed moving students from level to level. One tool we need in our repertoire for conferring is knowledge of text levels. When you are familiar with the skills in each level, you will be able to pull from that knowledge and quickly know what skill you need to teach that child. Share how you foresee referencing these skills for easy access while you confer.
Respond Here:
Chapter 10 from Bobbi Friend #2 We need to know the skills required as students attempt to move from one level to the next. In order to be familiar with these levels we need to find some material such as the Fountas and Pinnell Guided Reading Levels so that we can become familiar with specific texts. We need to develop skills and strategies checklists as shown in chapter 8 for each reading level. We need to research books in order to know the text difficulties and qualities of the text that appear in many books. We need to understand the density of the text, how the pictures help with the text, how complex is the vocabulary in the text, what is the sentence length and sentence structure, and how is the text written that will affect fluency and intonation. Once you have done some research on the characteristics of books at each level, the next step is developing your list of skills and strategies to be taught for that level.
One way I foresee myself referencing these skills is by having mentor texts available for my use. If I am familiar with a text from each level (or ones mainly used within my upper elementary setting) I would be able to focus more on a few skills from each level. This would make it much more efficient for me.
My reading series comes with leveled reading material. I have started looking at the in a new light. Setting the books out I can see the progression. Each reading unit comes with emergent reader, on level reader and above level reader. It's not perfect but it will be my spring board as I begin this journey. I also have an extensive library set up in our "reading room" that are leveled. As I research my students these will be a guide for my students when shopping. Understanding the levels of reading material also guide me in strategies to discuss when conferring.
Margaret Fox
I think that it is important to look up book levels and characteristics to make ourselves very familiar with this information. Our school district uses Fountas and Pinnell's. I think the more familiar we make ourselves with these the better we will be at conferencing with our students. I need to spend more time leveling my classroom books and develop a conferencing menu so I can put it inside my notebook to make reference to as I confer with my students. Having this menu will help me to know what challenges my student might encounter when moving on to the next level and what skills I could teach them so they would be successful. One challenge for me is I need to make myself more familiar with the text that my students will be using. Ronda
I'm going to start with my literacy coach. I will ask what information she may have to share. I hope to find a copy of F&P's Guided Reading. It is mentioned so often in the books I'm reading that I sense it could be a valuable resource that I can copy quick idea lists out of. Like I mentioned before, I will ask/beg my colleagues for any advice or help they can share with me. I'm sure some of them have great checklists, shortcuts, and mentor text that they can lead me towards. Today, when I was researching some information on Accelerated Reading I saw ideas that looks like it will blend well with the skills I need to build for Reader's Workshop. I plan to take a closer look at that information for possible additional support.
Mike
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#3. There are several other ways you can get information from the reader ahead of time to help ease your conferring. One is to study past conference notes, another is to analyze their running records, and yet another way is to analyze their book logs. Which one of these analyses do you feel would be most helpful to you in your classroom situation? Please expound on this.
Respond Here:
I use a combination of prior conference notes and running records to inform my reading conferences with students. There isn’t one way that is most helpful as both of the tools I have used inform my teaching differently. For example, the running record gives me an overview of accuracy and miscues, fluency, and comprehension. From that assessment I can hone in on that particular area as I approach the reader. I use past notes to remind myself which skill we have been working on together (and as mentioned in a previous chapter, keep at the same skill until the student is secure with it). I can glance at a unit check-bric to see the dates of when I’ve worked on that skill with the student and where to go next with her. Since I haven’t used book logs in the past I’m interested in trying this to add to my repertoire of tools. I can see how it would be helpful to look for information in the log such as, “How long is the student reading in school and at home each day?” or “How long was this student in one reading level before moving on to the next?” (page 146). I foresee having conferences then about how to make more of a reading life at home, if needed.
Sara Sabourin
I would benefit most from using my conference notes and the students' book logs. I do not normally do a running record on a student, unless they are at a significantly lower grade level. I choose not to use running records because I teach upper elementary; this type of assessment is usually used for lower grade levels.
This will be my first year using Reading Workshop. The one area I had been struggling with was effective conferring. Through out this book study I have gained some tools that will help me be a more effective reading teacher. My research will be my start. The conference notes and running records will guide me when I confer. I will be implementing the Reading Log.
Margaret Fox
I have used each of the analysis methods described, but relied most heavily on rereading notes from previous conferences. I reread these notes before beginning all of my conferences last year. I found it was a great refresher to know what we talked about last time. I am excited to use the new chart format that allows me to record compliments and teaching points that I made and could’ve made. While I will only be focusing on one skill or strategy when I talk to the student, I can check in on things I noted before but did not teach. I may be pleasantly surprised to find that a teaching point I could have made last time is now something the student is doing well on his/her own.
I also gain insight from my students’ running records, especially from those students who are struggling readers. I will admit that I do not analyze them to the extend described in the book, but am going to spend more time figuring out why a child missed a word to give a more focused strategy at our next conference.
On a rare occasion, I used book logs to guide my conference. I most frequently used this analysis for readers who appeared to be finishing books too quickly or not finishing them at all. As mentioned in the book, there are students every year who whip through books, but spend little time in thought. They are able to retell the story with ease but make no connections or inferences about the characters. I know after this analysis what skills to teach the student to deepen his/her understanding. I more use the logs to hold students accountable for recording their reading so they are able to see their growth throughout the school year.
Stephanie Cooper
I always prepared ahead of time for a conference by looking over a student’s prior conference notes. This helped me get into a frame of mind for that student and be able to listen for examples of improvements to that student’s previous teaching point(s). Often a previous teaching point would become a complement in later conferences. I also used a recording software last year that helped me prepare greatly. A parent would record students reading one week and then I could go back and listen to that student the day before I was going to confer with them. I did a running record on the recording and that helped me research complements and teaching points. Then when I conferences with the student I had some research in my mind prior to help me during the actual conference. In a way I was doing a pre-conferring session before my conferring. It seems like a lot of work but it was actually pretty easy – 5 minutes at the most per student and it really helped me hone in on specific skills without the crunch for time. Garth
Garth, thank you for sharing the idea of having a parent tape students reading. That seems like a great way to do a better running record and have the time to rewind, relisten, and do a better job of researching what my students are doing. When I do running records "in person" I feel like I'm rushed to keep up and get good evidence. What a great way to de-stress running records! Conference notes seem like the best way to keep my teaching individualized and keep me focused with evidence of what we have talked about previously. The whole accountability thing for me and the students. With all that said, I was impressed with analyzing the book logs. Seems like an easy way to get information on student reading habits and provides some quick strategies to teach.
Mike
As I start the year and will be working on increasing my student’s stamina for reading, I will use book logs to guide my conferences. I want to focus on improving the time my students spend reading and interacting with their books. Keeping good records of my conferences and then reviewing them prior to the next conference will keep me focused and also holding my students accountable for the instruction that I have already given them. Returning to previous skills will reinforce for my students that they need to use the things we have talked about.Sue Ronning
I won't be sticking to just one method to gather information when conferring. I see myself using book logs to see what students are reading. How long they are spending on books? Are they reading at home? Are they reading a variety of texts? Keeping good notes from previous conferring will be very important as well. Running records will prove to be very useful too. I like the chart ideas on page 144. I am really looking forward to trying running records this year. I am hoping that I become comfortable with all three of these methods, that I can find patterns in order to teach my students strategies they need to become better readers. TGaribay
Conference notes and book logs would assist me. Past performance or tends would let me see what the student is on the verge of and allow me to better gear their conference to met their individual needs. Conference would show what ground the student has cover. The book log what show if the student favors an author, a genre and how to guide them to expand if it was warranted? Kdn
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#4. Conferring is hard work. To help us master the process, we really have to internalize the structure of a conference so that it is second nature to us. Also the authors suggest we not be afraid to reuse demonstrations we have used before. Another piece to add to our repertoire or conferring toolkit is to have mentor texts available in our arm to illustrate our teaching point. Share with members of this wiki, some specific mentor texts you could carry with you as you confer and what would you use them for.
Respond Here:
It's difficult for me to quote from a specific text; all my books are at school! But if I had to use a mentor text for the skill of envisioning, I would use Captain Underpants as a mentor text. It is in the format of a comic book, with many illustrations and sketches. I would use this to show the students how to take text and draw what one sees in their mind or how to make a mental image. Any text that is in comic form, would be good for teaching envisioning. I also would use our basal reader as a mentor text just because all the students would be familar with the passages. Unfortunately, I cannot think of any more specific texts to use for conferring.
Cara1212
Like the author of the book, I didn’t carry a text with me to conferences and often found myself going to grab one mid conference. Luckily, I usually knew right where the book was located. I am going to work harder to be more prepared by having a couple of books at my side to make the most of my conferences.
Any of the Kevin Henkes books that I have read aloud are great to use for connections, inferring how a character feels, and story elements. My students last year loved these stories and I referred back to them often during my mini lesson teachings.
Magic Tree House books would be great for helping students read fluently. These books are read aloud in my classroom, therefore making them familiar to students to they can focus on my teaching point and not the plot. They are rich with dialogue that is shouted, whisper, and said with various emotions and there are plenty of commas with which students can gain practice reading instead of ignoring. These text would also work well for inferring about characters and envisioning due to their detail of varied locations.
Stephanie Cooper
Similar to Stephanie I did not have mentor text readily available for conferring last year and I should have. I too would waste time in the middle of a conference trying to find a familiar book to teacher a skill/strategy. This year our district has adopted a systematic Read Aloud/Vocabulary series called Making Meaning. This series has specific read aloud picture books per week/comprehension skill. I’m going to rely on these picture books next year as my mentor books. I think the familiarity of these books through our Making Meaning time will help the student during conferring. - Garth
I can relate to all of you about not having the text right in my hands at the right moment! I totally agree with Stephanie that the Kevin Henkes books have such dynamic characters and plots that they can be used to support many strategies that I might teach in a conferene. I think that using texts from whole class instruction that the students really enjoyed and did some deep thinking could be great for conferring. Maybe chosing one text per comprehension strategy to carry around would give me enough to use as teaching points. Debbie Miller has a great list of texts to teach the 7 comprehension strategies, any of which would be good mentor texts. ~ Stephanie B.
A mentor text I would use for fiction would probably an Ezra Keats book for lower students. The books are relatable to my students. For a little high level I might use Charlotte’s Web—character development, inference, fore shadowing so many reading strategies are covered by EB White. For nonfiction I would probably use one of my many how to it type books that I am luck to have in my library. Kdn